My computer crashed!! I am devastated. Yesterday afternoon when I turned it on I got the fatal message on a black screen, "Windows could not load because the following file is missing or corrupt .... CONFIG\SYSTEM." A death sentence.After mourning for 6 or 7 hours and then sleeping on the problem it occured to me that I should call the Toshiba Technical Help line. The voice (Indian accent) guided me to the Restore wizard. It became clear that I would lose everything I'd saved in the last four months, including photos. Groan. Nevertheless I needed to have my computer working, so I clicked on Yes and went through the whole process. After 30 or 40 minutes I had Windows back, with all the clutter on that banal desktop. The documents I'd saved in Wordpad, not too many, were gone. The photos and the program for them were gone. Starting from scratch. Of course I hadn't saved anything on a flashdrive. Much snarling and mental flagellation.
The reason for the crash is a mystery to me, but I suspect it had something to do with the DVD I put in forgetting that Windows was not on. Anyway, that's when the message came on. I'm back to square one.
Did this ever happen to you?
17 comments:
Oh, Priscilla - how awful! We start to depend upon these silly machines so much and then suddenly they fail us - it's worse than the power going out for a few hours.
So sorry that you had to lose all your work - hope that you can recreate it without too much problem.
This particular problem has never happened to me - I can't imagine what the DVD must have accidently done to your system - the only thing that I can think of is that somehow, something on the DVD triggered something in the startup code of your computer that made it think it was to startup from the DVD code instead of its regular firmware code ....
Do get yourself some kind of backup device - I have two - an external hard drive and a flashdrive - somethings I save on both mediums, JIC one of them fails.
P.S. love that picture!!!!!
It happened to me last January, right after my birthday, I dropped something on the keyboard while it was open, and tick tick tick, it died. I lost EVERYTHING, all my pictures.... etc. I didn't have anything saved either, except I had my pictures on my work computer too so I had sort of saved them in another place. I have since bought a flash drive, and have not taken it out of the box. Why? Don't know, I should huh?
Oh I'm so very sorry, Priscilla. Oh bummer. I neglect saving to flash drive pretty often and then I fear this sort of thing. It has happened to me before in varous ways.
The dvd -- wow. Thanks for the warning. I guess we have to be very careful about putting something in the drive before turning on the computer?
Biddie's explanation sounds very technically astute, and right. It's over my head. I'm so sorry. Can you very easily rewrite the material lost? The picture is very expressive.
Thanks for sympathy. Some of the pix are still on my camera. That's not a big deal. The Windows that was restored does not look exactly like what I had. The print and desktop icons are very small. Don't know how to change them. When I turn it on and try to open browser (IE) I get internet for 3 minutes then it is gone. I wrote this comment twice at home but was not able to send it. Pulling my hair out! I've spent hours on trying to correct it, hope I haven't changed important settings. In case it is due to landlord's router today I've brought the notebook to the public library, where I am now, and will try if wireless access is okay here.
It may not have been from the DVD. He has a new big screen TV that is located just on the other side of the wall. There's a new neighbor. A virus? It could be anything.
Priscilla - I'm afraid that you've, unfortunately, picked up a serious virus!
Don't try to send any email or plug into any network - it will probably replicate itself and/or eventually distroy your PC. Can you take it to a geek squad at Best Buy or some trouble-shooter team and have them check it for you to identify just what is going on?????
Well, I took it to the public library and connected to their wireless access. Same problem. Sinking heart. A librarian helped me enlarge the print and icons, that is an improvement. After the type changes I suddenly had Internet access!! Not just the 2 or 3 minutes but 45 minutes so far (I'm still at the pl). I still don't know what caused it but I'm feeling a whole lot more cheerful right now. Let's see if I can send this comment.
Yes, it worked. So maybe I don't have a virus! I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Do you have antivirus software?
I hope it continues to work well for you.
Good news - hope it stays steady for you!!
P.S. Hi Maria
Yes, I have Norton antivirus. Fortunately the novel is on my flashy so that is ok. I stayed online another hour after I sent that message (above) and all was well and this morning at home it seems fine. Just one of those mysteries of life, I guess.
Just after I said it seemed fine I went to my SB blog to post a picture and the computer froze up. The fan was running for half an hour but nothing was responding. Panic set in. I called Toshiba help line. He instructed me to shut it off,remove the battery, drain remaining power (press power switch for 10 seconds), replace battery, and start it up. It worked! Just thought I'd mention this as a remedy for freeze-ups. Maybe I'm the only one who doesn't know this simple remedy.
(( as an aside: every time I look at your picture of the screaming child, I have to smile - boy, do I remember similar incidents in my own house from so many years ago ... ))
My Laptop has frozen up twice now -much like you described above. I don't know what caused it - the only thing that I could think was that I hit some strange combo of keys as I was putting the PC into hibernation mode.
The hard drive was spinning so loud and nothing would respond. Pulling the auxiliary power cord didn't stop it. I finally just left it to run the battery down and it did stop. I very timidly put the power cord back in, fearful of what would happen. It just started up as if nothing ever happened and began charging the battery as the system behaved normally.
I don't know how to remove my battery - that is good info about removing the battery and holding down the power switch. How did you remove your battery?
First hold down power switch; everything will go off. Turn computer over. Battery is long rectangle at one edge; undo latches on left and right of it. Slide battery out. Mine was not hot--he said that was good. Turn machine rightside up again and press power for 10 seconds (this is draining it). Turn computer upside down again. Slide in battery. Turn right side up and press power in usual startup way.
Mine has frozen up a couple of times also. I held the power switch down as a last resort and it finally turned off. Then I just started it up again and it seemed okay. I didn't know about draining power. Thanks.
I'm glad all seems to be well now.
Thanks for that set of instructions - I picked my laptop up, turned it over and found the cover, much to the sensitivities and indignity of the laptop's feelings. (grin)
Some time ago, even with a surge protector, the power supply in another computer got zapped by a lightning strike in the power lines somewhere else. The tech support that repaired it told me that the capacitors in the power supply and elsewhere in the computer hold charges even after the power is removed - apparently that's why you have to be careful to drain the power off before you do anything to the PC ....
Update: I DID have Norton antivirus before the crash, but of course that was wiped away. It got slow as molasses, so, realizing I was unprotected, I researched antivirus programs, found that AVG was highly regarded and put that on. Now speed is normal! Yeesh!
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